Daytona Bike Week

There are plenty of reasons to head down to Daytona bike week this year. AMA racing, poker runs, motorcycle shows, concerts, and of course, beautiful women and beer. But Daytona will also host the start of the 2011 XDL Championship series.

The Daytona event of the XDL will be unique because for the first time the XDL is kicking off the series with a Freeride Festival. The XDL Pro competition will be combined with an AFS Amatuer event. There will also be stunt schools and XDL pros will be giving tips and advice on bike set up, safety, preperation, gear, and tricks.

“Everything we are doing for Daytona is special this year,” said Thomas Evans, co-founder of the XDL series. “From the collab with the Stuntride AFS Amateur Series, to the huge streetride and afterparties to the partnership with Bling Rockets.com on the bike show and for the first time ever, Bikestyles is hosting rider and bike workshops. Kinda like a Q and A that people can attend to find out details about bike setup, trick tips and safety from the XDL pro riders. This event is going to be one for the history books.”

The 2011 XDL series will be a five event series this year, and will follow some of the biggest motorcycle events in the United States. The XDL series will be at both Daytona and Arizona Bike Weeks this year, as well as both MotoGP events at Indianapolis and Laguna Seca. The XDL will also be hosting the XDL Freeride Festival at the Nashville Superspeedway in June.

The XDL Freeride Festival will be one of the hot spots at Daytona this year. Stunters like Bill Dixon, Nick Apex, Luke Duke, and Lin Savage will be tearing up the aspault this year, and you may even witness the birth of a few new tricks.

“I’ve coined some old school stuff,” said Evans. “But most recently guys started doing a pivot circle wheelie at the end of a larger one and Nick Apex (who was one of the first to do it) wanted to call it a pirouette.. I was like HELL NO, so I named it the death spin in honor of his crew, The Death Squad. He is somewhere sulking still mad…”

If you can’t make it out to Daytona this year for the 6th year of the XDL series, you can check them out at a few more events across the country, or learn more about this exciting series at Stuntride.com.

Traditionally the richest round on the AMA Pro Road Racing schedule, this year’s Daytona 200 season-kickoff event is no exception. A total of $235,500 will be up for grabs when the series returns to Daytona International Speedway, the purse spread throughout the AMA Pro National Guard Superbike, Daytona SportBike, Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport, and Vance & Hines XR1200 classes.

The 70th running of the legendary Daytona 200, which reverts to its traditional Saturday-afternoon start this year, will offer a bristling field of Daytona SportBike riders 57 laps to fight for a $20,000 winner’s purse. The event’s second- and third-place finishers will claim $15,000 and $10,000, respectively, with the remaining $64,500 paying down through 20th position.

Each of the two 15-lap AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike races will award a $51,000 purse, for a double-header total of $102,000. SuperBike race-winners will take home $10,000 per victory, with the remaining $41,000 paying through 15th position.

The Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport class—- for which Daytona serves as a combination East/West Division event—- will vie for a total of $7,000 per 10-lap race, each winner claiming a $1,500 purse and the remaining prize money paying through tenth position.

The Vance & Hines XR1200 class, making its inaugural appearance at Daytona International Speedway and boasting the largest field the division’s seen yet, will race for $10,000 in prize money. The first big V-twin to tear across the line will take home $3,750, with the remainder paying through tenth position.

The stakes are high for AMA Pro’s road race stars, and fans who emerge from Daytona International Speedway’s tunnels into the legendary infield for the March 12 event will experience a full slate of pit-stops, autograph sessions, fan walks, vendors and exhibitors, live entertainment, and more.

American Honda will be hosting a party on Friday, March 4th, to kick off the festivities at Daytona Bike Week. Honda will have live music, motorcycles, and the Honda Supercross Red Riders team.

The 9th round of the 2011 Supercross series will be held at the Daytona International Speedway on March 5th. James Stewart and Ryan Villopoto have captured the majority of Supercross victories this season, but Honda earned a top spot with a fantastic performance by Trey Canard in Houston.

Canard, along with the rest of the Honda Red Rider team, will be on hand at the Honda party on Friday to meet fans and sign autographs.

Honda will also be raising money for the Ride for Kids charity.

“The festivities take place from 6pm to 9pm in Honda’s main display area located in front of the Daytona Speedway on W. International Speedway Blvd, Daytona Beach,” Honda said in a press release. “The Honda Red Riders will also be showing their support for the Ride for Kids (RFK) charity by donating autographed jerseys and riding apparel to be given away during the evening. Honda will be encouraging everyone in attendance to show support for RFK by making a charitable donation.”

Looking for other Daytona events? Check out these 10 must see events at Daytona Bike week this year.

Are you heading to Daytona Bike Week this year? If you are, check out the new Bike Week iPhone app. Daytona Bike Week is one of the largest rallies in the country, and this year, the 70th anniversary of Daytona Bike week, it’s going to be even bigger.

The Bike Week app has just about everything you need for Daytona Bike Week 2011. A calendar of events, restaurant listings, a bar guide, Daytona news, weather, and hotel deals. You can even mark the events you want to attend and create an itinerary with the Bike Week app.

What’s included with the app:

Official Source of Bike Week Events

Create List of Favorite Events

Bike Week Businesses

List of Area Restaurants

List of Area Attractions

List of Bars & Clubs

Local Weather & News

Bike Week Photo Gallery

The Bike Week app is free and can be downloaded on the iPhone of the iPad. The 70th annual Daytona Bike week will be on March 4th to March 11th.

Companies from all over the country will be heading to Daytona in March to show off some of their cool products. Dakota Digital, a manufacturer of custom motorcycle gauges, will not only be showing off their products, they’ll be installing them.

Dakota Digital will have their complete line of motorcycle gauges down in Daytona. So whether you ride a Harley, a Metric, a Big Dog, or a Victory, they’ll be able to outfit your bike with some sweet instrumentation.

Dakota Digital can freshen up your speedometer, but they also have gear indicators, heat gauges, fuel gauges, air and oil pressure indicators, clocks, and just about anything else you could want.

If you’re heading to Daytona and want to check out some custom gauges, Dakota Digital will have a booth in the Drag Specialties section in the J&P Cycles Lot.

Mike Merrit, of Dakota Digital, will be installing the gauges during Daytona.

“I will be performing installations on all of our direct replacement gauges,” Merrit said. “On a bagger, you can expect about an hour wait. On a Sportser or Road King, the wait is only about 20 minutes.”